Weapon of the Elders Review (Pt. 2)

Her Memory is a low rate of fire, high impact auto rifle – one of those that received a small but significant damage boost in the April Update, making them once again a viable choice for a variety of game modes.Their relatively high range and low recoil reward mid-range combatants and have a pretty consistent time to kill even with body shots, but lower rate of fire means they inflict less flinch than other auto rifles and may not do as well in close quarters.

Sight-wise, you could land Reflex or Sureshot IS (or both) to enhance your Aim Assist right off the bat, but the range-enhancing OEG Riflescope is also on the table.

The perks to watch for on the first node would Persistence and Rangefinder, to keep you on target at a distance. Spray and Play is the only real reload perk on the gun though, and the small mag means you can actually take advantage of it. Crowd Control is always handy as well and will save you a fraction of a second on follow up kills.

In the selectable middle column, I would hope for Rifled Barrel or Smallbore to extend your effective range – both would greatly benefit from Spray and Play to make sure you never run empty for long. If you already have Rangefinder or Persistence though, you might benefit more from a utility perk like Speed Reload in this slot.

Rounding us out, I would hope for the ever-helpful Hidden Hand or Third Eye perks, but PVE players may prefer Glass Half Full (not great with Smallbore, but wonderful with Spray and Play).

Techeun Rage is a low Impact, low Charge Rate Fusion Rifle. Yes, you read that right. It’s in an archetype I could only find approximated in Common White Fusion Rifles. No, I don’t understand it either – its stats are in every way terrible and you can probably skip the perk discussion below and just dismantle for Chroma. But, just in case you’ve ever fired a Split Shifter Pro and thought to yourself, “I wish this gun charged more slowly and hit less hard, but had really high Aim Assist to make up for it,” well,Variks has got the gun for you!

I would strongly encourage you to look for a Sureshot IS or Reflex scope here – 80+ Aim Assist is the only thing to recommend this gun, so you might as well max it out.

None of the perks in this first column are likely to make a real difference for you. You could hope for Hip Fire or Hidden Hand, but you already have Aim Assist out the ears. I guess Rescue Mag wouldn’t be terrible, but this Fusion starts with 7 bursts in the mag so it’s not a big deal.

Braced Frame is 100% required in the middle column to keep your bolts tight. In the third column, I suppose Knee Pads lets you take advantage of the slow charge speed to slide in and benefit from the Stability boost you get from crouching. Life Support would be nice too, though, since you’ll probably take some fire trying to make this gun work.

Well, there you have it – the weirdest Fusion Rifle archetype we never knew was a thing until now. Really puts a picture to the old “Infusion” Rifle joke.

The Nightmare is a high Blast Radius, mid-Velocity Rocket Launcher built like an Ash Factory, but with 2 in the mag and a low starting Inventory. Not to worry though – it has the same perk table as The Ash Factory, too.

Any Barrel that boosts Blast Radius and Velocity is you friend here, but at least boost Velocity. Your preference for the first perk column is definitely Tripod, but Grenadier and Army of One can be nice in PVE. Last Resort could be a Trials life saver, too.

The selectable perk column could be a bit painful. Classic choices would be Heavy Payload or Javelin (the better of the two here), but given the low inventory score on this gun what you really need is Field Scout.

Finally, there’s no debate these days: Grenades & Horseshoes is the perk for PVP Rocket Launchers. One the PVE side, there’s Tracking and Cluster Bombs, but don’t look askance at Clown Cartridge either. Combo that with Tripod and you could end up with 4 Rockets in the mag!

This one’s easy to sum up: a fantastic rocket launcher with the right perks.

Bane of the Taken is a second look at the Wolves’ Bane of yesteryear and the only Year 2 Legendary Machine Gun in its class – the class with the lowest time-to-kill, by the way. It also has the second most starting Range of any Machine Gun in the game ever and the most in Year 2 by 4 points.

I’d focus on Impact for your Barrel, to make every shot count. That means Aggressive Ballistics is number one, followed by Accurized Ballistics, Linear Compensator, or Field Choke. Following that in your first Weapon Perk column, I’d probably want Counterbalance on a perfect roll (with more Stability to follow), but don’t be disappointed by Hip Fire, Eye of the Storm, or even Spray and Play – reload speed is a major drawback on Machine Guns.

In the selectable middle column, Perfect Balance is nice to stabilize the gun, but I think Smallbore is probably the most lethal choice. Those dual boosts to Range and Stability will have you landing kills are simply dirty distances. I also wouldn’t be terribly disappointed by High Caliber Rounds or even Quickdraw.

The final perk slot rounds us out nicely. Rangefinder, Persistence, and Hidden Hand will all help you land those devastating headshots, while Crowd Control has obvious benefits in reducing the rounds needed to kill from 4 to 3 in most cases. There’s not really anything in this slot I’d be upset about though.

Dreadfang is a Taken-themed Void Sword identical stat-wise to the Void Edge and Void Infinite Edge, differing only by a few perks. All provide increased Armor from Tempered Light as well as a Void-Forged Guard, but Dreadfang stands out with Will of Light in its final perk column, granting bonus damage against Taken. Is that enough to give it a clear niche in the game, or will it have to compete on looks alone? Only time will tell.

There you have them: The 10 weapons from Challenge of the Elders plus Dreadfang, the Taken Sword. Which ones stand out to you? Did we judge them accurately? Let us know in the comments below!